How much lighting do I need for this refugium?

[Anonymous]

I plan to reconfigure my sump (38" x 28") to dedicate a portion of it to function as a refugium. The area for the refugium should end up measuring around 20" x 20", give or take a few inches. Water depth should be around 9"-10", less the thickness of any sandbed I may add.

Since this inside my stand, I would to prefer to use power compacts to keep heat from becoming an issue. What would you reccomend? A pair of 32watt 10000K PC's, or would one of those new 96watt Power Quads be a better choice? The cost would be abut the same.

 

[brandon4291]

You couldnt go wrong with either one Milz. One fun thing about a refugium is lighting from any home depot garden center will run them, they'll run on standard plant-gro bulbs and the expensive reef bulbs aren't required because a refugium needs no actinic to run (why pay for visual enhancement when we usually don't see the refugium). A standard reef bulb also works fine and if I could get a powerquad affordably that would be nice!

anything between 5500K and 10000 K will work just fine. Lights of America setups are common, and I hear its about $30 for the whole PC setup, ballast/mounts/bulbs

You could not go wrong browsing Hellolights.com I have spent probably $800 there in lighting, just ordered a 4x55w retrofit kit for my planted tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I started a thread a few weeks ago asking for opinions on whether standard plant-grow lights would do the job. The concensus seemed to be no. As a result, I am now looking at marine grade PC set-ups. But of course, I would rather not spend $120 on a basic PC set-up if something cheaper will work.

I have been investigating the Lights of America 65w shop light fixture that supposedly sells for around $30. However, I have heard several people say to stay away from these because they generate a lot of heat, and may even melt-down. If true, it would be foolish to use these just to save $90 and risk burning the house down.

I will probably head to Home Depot tomorrow morning and see what they have.

 

[Anonymous]

Plant-gro bulbs are VERY high in wavelengths of the red end of the spectrum. You'll do better to mix shop lights in the daylight on the cool end of the spectrum. It's been well over a decade since I tracked down the information myself, but I actually used a mixture of shoplights over my reef tank, with very good results.

I do believe there are power compact fluorescents for the home, the issue would be ensuring you get bulbs that peak in the blue (digging deep into my memory banks here, so I may be off base), green, and yellow portions of the spectrum, and weak in the red. If you can't find that, I can give you my own empirical experience/evidence that Caulerpa grows very well under a combination of cool white and daylight shop lights (4' - 40W).

Hope this helps!

 

[Anonymous]

I have a refugium roughly the size of a ten gallon 12"x20". I leave one 15 watt flourescent on 24/7 and have seen significant growth in the macros. No complaints and it seems to work fine for me.

 

[Anonymous]

I just had an awful mini-movie pictured in my mind of "When the Macros Complained to Dragoon". 8O
:lol:
Tres bad 50s sci-fi.

 

[brandon4291]

you must wear paper 3D goggles to go in. We must cruise for 20 minutes in my '72 B-210 before going to see this film


8)

 

[Anonymous]

<giggle>

 

[Anonymous]

So i take it you would want to leave the lights on 24hrs a day for good results w/ a refugium..I am currently trying to get a hang on (CPR) 12x12x4...would the light on 24hrs affect the inhabitants of my tank since this is gonna be a hangon fuge???

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think that's the case, LN.

 

[Anonymous]

SM, you dont think whats the case? the lights should be on all the time? or it wont effect the inhabitants?

 

[danmhippo]

Great refug can be made either lit 24hours or not. It's all about maintenance.

 

[Anonymous]

What about the spikes in Ph. during the night hours...??

 

[danmhippo]

You mean a "dip" in pH at dark hours? Normally, in stagnant or tanks with slow water movement, pH is suppressed due to CO2 accumulation (algae does not photosynthesize during dark hours). But in tanks with vigorous air exchanges this is usually not a big problem.

Vigorous gas exchange could be either pointing powerhead towards the surface to create surface agitation, or six feet drop waterfall from the main tank down to the sump, or simply a properly functioning protein skimmer.

 

[Anonymous]

I visited a couple of home improvement stores over the weekend to see what kinds of lights they carried that might do the job.

Home Depot did not have any Lights of America fixtures, nor did they have any power compact fixtures and/or bulbs that I could verify were full spectrum (i.e., in the 6500K range). The only fixtures and/or bulbs that appeared to be full spectrum were standard florescent bulbs in various lengths.

Menards did not carry Lights of Amercia fixtures, but they did have a few Lights of America power compact bulbs, including a 65watt bulb that appears to be the one used in the LOA shop fixture that I have heard people using to light their refugiums. However, the bulb did not list the color temp.

Menards did, however, carry a number of outdoor light fixtures using power compact bulbs made by Regents (or Reagents). They had a 13watt fixture for $14, a 26watt fixture for $30, and a 65watt fixture for $44. The description on the bottom of the box for each of these fixtures said that the bulbs were 6400K.

Although not as cheap as the Lights of America fixtures, they are still cheaper than CSL retros, and may be a good option for lighting refugiums, nanos and smaller tanks.

I bought the 13watt fixture as a possible light for a nano tank that I have been playing around with. If this light works out, then I will take another look at the 65watt fixture for my refugium.